The ground trembled slightly as Jiro ran down the path leading to his home, dodging screaming people, smoke, and burning wood fragments. The screams pierced the air like needles, loaded with desperation. When he reached the yard, his breath was rapid, but his eyes, determined. He ran toward the corner where the bamboo grew tall and firm, and there, as if waiting for this moment, rested his spear—the Higetsu no Yari—among the stalks.
He reached out, and the handle returned a familiar energy. The carved wood, smooth and firm, vibrated softly at Jiro's touch, as if it recognized its bearer.
—Jiro?!
His mother's voice burst out behind him, scared but firm.
—What's happening now?! What are all those screams?
And when she saw him with the spear, her eyes widened like moons in the night.
—Wait… since when do you have a spear?
Jiro, eyes ablaze, answered as he moved toward the exit.
—I'll explain it later, Mom! I promise!
Without another word, he leapt onto the wooden fence, then to the roof. Each step echoed like a war drum on the cracked tiles. When he reached the edge of the house, he focused his spiritual energy into his legs. The world seemed to freeze for an instant. And then—BOOM!—Jiro launched into the air like a flame fired from an invisible trampoline, soaring through the sky.
—Jiro...
His mother murmured with tears swelling in her eyes, forming a small worried pout, yet filled with determination. Without staying behind, she rushed out of the house, following him through the agitated streets.
Above, the sky was torn by the dark cracks of the Shiketsus, each spewing deformed and wrathful spirits. From the air, Jiro saw it all. His village was being consumed by chaos. Collapsed houses, fire leaping across roofs, people trying to protect their families. Warriors sealing fissures with effort. Nothing was easy.
Then he saw him.
—Grandpa!
The fierce-eyed old Oni looked up just as he sliced a spirit in two with his ancestral katana. His armor seemed even brighter amidst the smoke and ash.
—Boy!
His grandfather shouted.
—I told you not to expose yourself to danger!
—I'm sorry, Grandpa!
Jiro yelled as he dropped beside him.
—I couldn't just sit and watch all this happen!
The old man stared at him for a second… then nodded. The bond between them didn't need more words. They leapt together, spinning in the air like dancers of steel and fury. Jiro wielded his spear with ferocity, his spiritual energy forming golden waves that exploded on impact, while the grandfather struck and sealed with deadly precision.
But the spirits kept coming. Flaming monsters, deformed beasts with misty teeth, beings covered in eyes. The Shiketsus opened like mouths from hell. Houses burned, the sky was a sea of red.
In the middle of the battlefield—Rayjou!
—Jirooo!
He shouted, a voice caught between fear and excitement.
Jiro looked at him and smiled amidst the fight. Seeing his friend was like seeing sunlight through storm clouds.
—Rayjou!
And with him was Shinji, always the calmest, but now full of energy and focus. Two giant fire spirits roared behind a girl. Without hesitation, Shinji jumped and, as he landed, slammed his hand into the ground. A tremor of spiritual energy erupted from his body, creating spikes of ice that pierced the creatures. The fire died, the fissures sealed. Silence… for an instant.
Jiro clenched his teeth.
—I won't fall behind!
The Higetsu no Yari shone with a blue glow. Jiro dashed toward one of the largest fissures, his steps floating in the air like walking on an invisible staircase. His grandfather followed.
—Let's go, Jiro!
Both launched toward the rift. But something was off. The fissure… moved. Suddenly, a humanoid figure formed. Tall, shadowy, like solid smoke. It had glowing eyes and a crooked smile. It extended its arm, and with a single motion, struck them both.
—Jirooo!
His mother screamed from below, watching her son and the elder flung like rag dolls.
Their bodies crashed into massive trees, knocking them down. Branches snapped like bones and the earth trembled. Jiro lay stunned, his spear nearby, his body bleeding. The grandfather stood up with difficulty, leaning on his sword.
—W-what was that…?
Jiro murmured, spitting blood, heart pounding fiercely.
The crunch of broken branches marked the end of a forced flight. Jiro and his grandfather crashed violently into the forest floor, carving a trench of dirt and shattered leaves. Both lay there, gasping, disoriented. The air was dense, charged with an unnatural energy that seemed to bend space itself.
—What was that…? —muttered the grandfather, rising with difficulty as a thread of blood slid down his temple—. Did the Daiketsu… attack us?
Jiro staggered to his feet, blood running from the corner of his lips. His eyes were fixed on the distant figure still emerging from the Fissure like a formless titan.
—Yeah… but I don't understand why. Fissures don't act like that —he said in a broken, incredulous tone—. Fissures don't talk…
And then the figure spoke again. Its voice was a mixture of metallic echoes and pure spiritual resonance, as if speaking from everywhere at once:
—I do, child of the spear. I've come back… to kill you.
Jiro stepped back. His heart pounded in his chest like a war drum. That voice… something in it stirred a deep memory, one he couldn't quite place. The being knew him, remembered him. It described him with precision, with a near-familiar certainty.
—What are you…? —Jiro roared, his words trembling with rage.
But his grandfather didn't let him wait for an answer.
—Now's not the time to ask that, Jiro! Now's the time to kill him! —he shouted, charging with his spiritual sword.
But the being —that embodied Daiketsu— simply raised its hand. With a snap of its fingers, it hurled the old master through the air with invisible force, like a dry leaf in a storm.
—Step aside, old man. This has nothing to do with you… —it murmured, impassive.
—Grandpa! —Jiro cried, his eyes wide with rage and fear. He gripped his spear tightly—. You'll pay for that, bastard!
His body flared with crimson energy. With a roar, he fired a barrage of rays from the Higetsu no Yari, each one vibrating with the power of his soul… but the enemy only smiled. He raised his hand, and portals of darkness opened before him, swallowing all the attacks like dust in the wind.
—That won't work on me again, foolish living being… —he whispered, almost amused.
And before Jiro could react, the Daiketsu appeared before him. His hand clutched Jiro's throat with a frozen strength, devoid of compassion.
—Let's go for a little ride…
With a flash of distorted light, they soared through the skies. The world became a storm. Mountains, valleys, forests… everything blurred. Jin —the name he had taken— smashed him through everything at terrifying speed. The pain was indescribable. Rocks shattered against his back. The sky seemed to twist in their wake.
—I should've killed you and your friend when I had the chance… in that cave —Jin said, his voice laced with restrained fury—. But don't worry. I'll finish the job now.
With an explosion of energy, Jin struck Jiro with a force that shattered reality itself. Cracks in the sky, lights that didn't belong to the mortal world, an explosion that shook entire continents.
Jiro screamed in pain. His whole body burned, but then… the spear responded. His spiritual energy flared back to life like a furious flame.
—So you're… you're the masked spirit from that time… —he said, gasping.
—I'd prefer if you called me Jin. But that doesn't matter —replied the figure, whose face remained hidden behind a fractal mask of shifting light—.
With a single finger, he formed a spiritual blast. He fired it. A beam tore through the world, destroying mountains, carving rivers where dry rock had once lain. But Jiro dodged it, driven by his will.
—What a surprise you came back… —said Jiro, his eyes ablaze—. Now I'll finish you for good.
He lunged with the spear. Jin vanished. Reappeared behind him and struck with both fists against his back. The impact drove him straight into the ground. The earth erupted in a blast of dust, rock, and energy.
Jiro's scream echoed for miles.
The tremors of the battle resounded like earthquakes. All of Lyrenis could feel it. Jin, the living Daiketsu, was tearing the fabric of space with every move. His face was a mass of broken colors, fragmented, impossible to see clearly. Then, with a final flash, he grabbed Jiro by the arm… and teleported him to the village.
Chaos froze. The warriors turned. The people stopped breathing. Even the sky seemed to watch.
Jin lifted Jiro into the air, bleeding, broken, dangling like a shattered puppet.
—This is for you, living beings. —His voice was thunder. A judgment—. I'll kill this brat in front of everyone… and then destroy your world when I'm done.
The words fell like blades.
Jiro's mother rushed through the crowd, tears in her eyes, despair carved into every step.
—Let go of my son, damn thing! —she cried, fearless—. What are you doing?! Jiro… sweetheart… wake up!
The entire village trembled.
And so, in the midst of the end, the flame of the crimson soul still burned faintly. But it wasn't out.
Not yet.
—Ma... mom...? —Jiro whispered weakly, his voice breaking from the pain—. Where are you...? Hey... where are you...?
His legs trembled. His breathing was fragile, and the world around him seemed to have stopped, suspended in a tense calm, as if the universe itself was holding its breath.
And then he saw her.
There, just a few steps away… on the ground.
His mother.
Collapsed, her body limp, her hair covering part of her face, and a trickle of blood running down the corner of her lips. Jiro's heart stopped for an instant. A deafening silence took hold of his senses, as if his soul had been completely ripped from his body. His blood ran cold.
—No... —he whispered, eyes wide—. No, no, no...
He remembered then what had happened seconds before. When his mother, desperate, ran toward Jin to stop him from hurting her son. She faced him... and without a word, Jin struck her.
A slap. Harsh. Violent. Inhuman.
Jiro had seen it all, unable to move, trapped by Jin's power. And in that moment... something broke inside him. It wasn't rage. It wasn't pain. It was something deeper. Something ancient. Something that had long been asleep... and had finally awakened.
The crescent moon pendant around his neck began to glow with a soft but intense light, and the Higetsu no Yari, his spear, trembled in his hand, vibrating as if responding to the call of his soul.
Jiro raised his gaze, tears streaming from his eyes, and screamed from the depths of his being:
—WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY MOTHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR?!
That scream tore through the air like a blade. The ground shook. The wind broke. And the entire world heard it.
Far away, Shinji, the guardian of the seals, suddenly stopped his meditation. His body trembled.
—That force... —he murmured, looking at the sky—. It can't be...
Jin, surprised, let go of Jiro with a look of confusion. He didn't understand what was happening. But it was already too late.
A surge of crimson flames erupted from Jiro's body, engulfing him in a whirlwind of pure energy. His horns glowed intensely, his eyes turned a deep crimson red, and burning marks—cracks like magma—spread across his cheeks.
Jiro was no longer the same.
With a gaze full of fury and compassion, he stretched his hand toward his mother. From his fingers, a warm light surged and traveled in a wave toward her body, slowly healing her wounds.
Then, he turned to Jin.
—You... —he growled with a broken voice—. You destroyed the only thing I had left...
With unimaginable strength, he grabbed Jin's arm and squeezed. The sound of bones cracking echoed. Jin screamed, but Jiro didn't stop. He threw him through the air like a doll and, before he could fall, caught him and stabbed him with the Higetsu no Yari, the spear erupting in a blast of crimson fire.
Everything froze for a second. Jiro was breathing heavily. His chest burned. He looked at his mother, then at the sky… and finally at Jin, wounded and furious.
—I'm going to destroy you completely, bastard... I won't let anyone else touch my family... NO ONE!
Jin, panting, laughed through his teeth.
—You? You're just a child with borrowed power... YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO ME!
And with his other hand, he launched a blast of dimensional energy that threatened to consume everything. But Jiro, without moving, raised his spear. The Higetsu no Yari absorbed the energy as if hungrily devouring it.
—Thanks... for the energy —he said with a cold smile—. Now it's my turn to take you on a little trip.
Jiro looked one last time at his mother. In his mind, he engraved her face, her warmth, her love.
"Goodbye, mom... goodbye everyone... I'll be back soon. I promise."
With his spear, he traced an X in the air, a spatial rift that began to expand. Inside, hyperspace revealed an infinite tunnel of universal lines, woven paths of light and darkness. Grabbing Jin by the neck, Jiro launched himself inside.
The speed was so immense that Jin began to disintegrate, screaming.
—YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, DAMN HALF-BREEEEEEEEED!
And so, Jin vanished… reduced to dimensional dust.
Jiro kept going, faster and faster… until his own body began to fade into particles.
And he disappeared.
Far away, in another part of the world...
A calm sea. A serene sky.
But suddenly, the sky shattered like glass, forming an X-shaped crack.
From it, a swirl of crimson particles emerged... and then, Jiro's body materialized. He fell with a desperate cry:
—HEEEEEELP!
His body hit the water, bouncing toward a shore of damp sand. For a few seconds, everything was silent.
Underwater, Jiro opened his eyes. He saw fish swimming. A faint laugh bubbled from him. He burst to the surface, soaked, gasping.
He looked around. Solid ground. Different vegetation. Denser air. A... different sky.
And only one moon in the sky.
—Where... am I...? —he whispered, dragging his feet through the sand—. Is it finally... over...? But...
And then he knew.
This isn't my world...
The air, the sky, the energy. Everything was different. Something bigger had begun. His journey... his true journey, had only just begun.
And Jiro, with his eyes fixed on the lone moon of this new world, understood something that would change his fate forever.
There's no turning back.